Triple H was interviewed by various outlets after NXT Takeover: Chicago was over. He was asked by Wrestling INC how he deals with some of his NXT talent not translating after getting called up to the WWE main roster. Over the years we have seen several Superstars and tag teams not find the same success that they had in NXT on RAW or Smackdown.
Here is what Triple H had to say:
“I think that comes down to anything right? You try to prep them, you try to give them the tools, you try to give them everything you can so they can succeed on the main roster. But the truth is if you believe that everyone who gets called up will become ‘the guy’ or ‘the girl’ or the next big thing it’s kind of an unrealistic expectation.
“There’s this weird thing in the business I feel like that happened. I’m not really sure how it happened where if you didn’t become the champion or you didn’t become the John Cena character you robbed this guy’s career like I don’t recall Roddy Piper being ‘the guy.’ Like I could go down a list of who’s who of Hall Of Fame performers that some could make arguments that they were the best in the world or the best at what they did at that moment in time or their all-time favorite character that never got past the middle card if you look at it honestly, right? Today you would look at those people and say ‘oh my God this Hall Of Fame worthy career I can’t believe it took them this long to put them in the Hall Of Fame.’ But the truth is if you went back and looked at it today you would have said: ‘ah he’s midcard for life man’ or ‘they screwed him and never gave him his spot.’ I don’t know how that changed and became the thing.
“Not everybody is gonna be ‘the guy’ and not everybody’s gonna be ‘the girl’ not everybody is gonna be the champ and it’s not about, ‘well they should get their turn that’s just the funniest thing of all time it’s like saying you should get a participation medal. That isn’t it at all.”
Triple H continued:
“There’s no ‘deserve’, everybody works hard. I hear that sometimes it’s like ‘oh he’s the hardest working guy in the business.’ I don’t know anybody on our roster that doesn’t work hard. Well, I do actually […] but there’s a lot of people who do work hard. Most of them, 99% of them work their asses off day in, day out just like everybody else does and they’re proud of that and they work hard for it and they should be excited and rewarded for successful careers. To me, making it to the WWE is the ‘wow.’ Being successful, making it to the main roster you know making it to these TakeOvers, ‘wow.’ Making it to the main roster, ‘wow’ and being there for a long period of time. Successfully doing it, not getting injured, making money for your family taking care of your family for generations like all that is ‘wow’ and phenomenal and that is success.”
Speaking of Triple H, he recently spoke about the possibility of crossover events with other promotions. You can read those comments here.